Referrer-Policy header

The HTTP Referrer-Policy {{Glossary("response header")}}  controls how much referrer information (sent with the {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  header) should be included with requests. Aside from the HTTP header, you can set this policy in HTML.

Syntax

Referrer-Policy: no-referrer
Referrer-Policy: no-referrer-when-downgrade
Referrer-Policy: origin
Referrer-Policy: origin-when-cross-origin
Referrer-Policy: same-origin
Referrer-Policy: strict-origin
Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
Referrer-Policy: unsafe-url

[!NOTE] The header name {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  is a misspelling of the word “referrer”. The Referrer-Policy header does not share this misspelling.

Directives

• no-referrer

  • : The {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  header will be omitted: sent requests do not include any referrer information.

• no-referrer-when-downgrade

  • : Send the {{glossary("origin")}} , path, and query string in {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  when the protocol security level stays the same or improves (HTTP→HTTP, HTTP→HTTPS, HTTPS→HTTPS). Don’t send the {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  header for requests to less secure destinations (HTTPS→HTTP, HTTPS→file).

• origin

  • : Send only the {{glossary("origin")}}  in the {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  header. For example, a document at https://example.com/page.html will send the referrer https://example.com/.

• origin-when-cross-origin

  • : When performing a {{glossary("Same-origin_policy", "same-origin")}}  request, send the {{glossary("origin")}} , path, and query string. Send only the origin for cross origin requests and requests to less secure destinations (HTTPS→HTTP).

• same-origin

  • : Send the {{glossary("origin")}} , path, and query string for {{glossary("Same-origin_policy", "same-origin")}}  requests. Don’t send the {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  header for cross-origin requests.

• strict-origin

  • : Send only the origin when the protocol security level stays the same (HTTPS→HTTPS). Don’t send the {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  header to less secure destinations (HTTPS→HTTP).

• strict-origin-when-cross-origin (default)

  • : Send the origin, path, and query string when performing a same-origin request. For cross-origin requests send the origin (only) when the protocol security level stays same (HTTPS→HTTPS). Don’t send the {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}  header to less secure destinations (HTTPS→HTTP).

    [!NOTE] This is the default policy if no policy is specified, or if the provided value is invalid (see spec revision November 2020). Previously the default was no-referrer-when-downgrade.

• unsafe-url

  • : Send the origin, path, and query string when performing any request, regardless of security.

    [!WARNING] This policy will leak potentially-private information from HTTPS resource URLs to insecure origins. Carefully consider the impact of this setting.

Integration with HTML

You can also set referrer policies inside HTML. For example, you can set the referrer policy for the entire document with a {{HTMLElement("meta")}}  element with a name of referrer:

<meta name="referrer" content="origin" />

You can specify the referrerpolicy attribute on {{HTMLElement("a")}} , {{HTMLElement("area")}} , {{HTMLElement("img")}} , {{HTMLElement("iframe")}} , {{HTMLElement("script")}} , or {{HTMLElement("link")}}  elements to set referrer policies for individual requests:

<a href="http://example.com" referrerpolicy="origin">…</a>

Alternatively, you can set a noreferrer link relation on an a, area, or link elements:

<a href="http://example.com" rel="noreferrer">…</a>

[!WARNING] As seen above, the noreferrer link relation is written without a dash. When you specify the referrer policy for the entire document with a {{HTMLElement("meta")}}  element, it should be written with a dash: <meta name="referrer" content="no-referrer">.

Integration with CSS

CSS can fetch resources referenced from stylesheets. These resources follow a referrer policy as well:

• External CSS stylesheets use the default policy (strict-origin-when-cross-origin), unless it’s overwritten by a Referrer-Policy HTTP header on the CSS stylesheet’s response.
• For {{HTMLElement("style")}}  elements or style attributes, the owner document’s referrer policy is used.

Examples

no-referrer

no-referrer-when-downgrade

origin

origin-when-cross-origin

same-origin

strict-origin

strict-origin-when-cross-origin

unsafe-url

Specify a fallback policy

If you want to specify a fallback policy in case the desired policy hasn’t got wide enough browser support, use a comma-separated list with the desired policy specified last:

Referrer-Policy: no-referrer, strict-origin-when-cross-origin

In the above scenario, no-referrer is used only if the browser does not support the strict-origin-when-cross-origin policy.

[!NOTE] Specifying multiple values is only supported in the Referrer-Policy HTTP header, and not in the referrerpolicy attribute.

Browser-specific preferences/settings

Firefox preferences

You can configure the default referrer policy in Firefox preferences. The preference names are version specific:

• Firefox version 59 and later: network.http.referer.defaultPolicy (and network.http.referer.defaultPolicy.pbmode for private networks)
• Firefox versions 53 to 58: network.http.referer.userControlPolicy

All of these settings take the same set of values: 0 = no-referrer, 1 = same-origin, 2 = strict-origin-when-cross-origin, 3 = no-referrer-when-downgrade.

Specifications

{{Specifications}} 

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}} 

See also

• Web security > Referer header: privacy and security concerns
• When using Fetch: {{domxref("Request.referrerPolicy")}} 
• Same-origin policy
• HTTP referer on Wikipedia
• Tighter Control Over Your Referrers – Mozilla Security Blog